Experts told how US sanctions in the field of IT services will affect Russian companies

After US sanctions come into force in Russia, the number of hacking cases may increase. This opinion was expressed by the co-founder of RB.RU and General Director of the company “AgroSignal” (digital platform for agriculture) Vladimir Korshunov.

At the time founder of the international school of programming and design CODDY Oksana Selendeeva, believes that sanctions can become an incentive for its own development.

“In the short term, sanctions will create a lot of difficulties, but this could also become an incentive for the development of Russia’s own IT sector, which in the long term could lead to the creation of independent and competitive technologies,” Selendeeva believes.

According to Korshunov, some solutions are extremely difficult to replace, especially in industry and design. Piracy will mainly affect specialized design systems (CAD systems). Its development in Russia is not profitable, replacing such software is labor-intensive, so the probability of piracy is high, Korshunov said.

The expert noted that for many the US plans to limit IT consulting, design and support to Russian companies starting September 12 caused shock, but the panic was in vain.

According to Korshunov, the level of risk posed by this sanctions package is not critical. Some solutions may temporarily stop working, but a global catastrophe is not expected, the expert believes.

“Companies have been preparing for possible restrictions for two years and understood that sooner or later a tightening was expected. Those who have not had time can opt for alternative solutions that are already available. In the spring, at a conference on the chemical industry, we saw concrete examples of how companies successfully replace imported solutions with domestic analogues. “We are sure that similar work is being carried out in other specific areas,” said the expert.

Korshunov believes that in the current situation, when payments abroad are difficult, it is impossible to directly purchase Western solutions. Companies that continue to buy foreign software act under their own responsibility, something that is now beginning to become evident.

Founder of the international school of programming and design CODDY Oksana Selendeeva believes that Russian companies, especially those that depend on Western IT solutions to manage their companies and production processes, will find themselves in a difficult situation. They will have to look for alternative solutions or develop their own technologies, which means higher costs and time, higher costs and lower competitiveness.

IT companies can also turn to IT service providers from countries that do not support sanctions, such as China or India, but integrating new systems may require additional time and resources.

Selendeeva notes that IT companies in Russia that provide design, consulting and support services may lose customers due to the ban on the provision of these services to the detriment of their business.

But what is happening also has advantages. For example, in conditions of limited export of IT services, Russian IT companies will be forced to reorient themselves towards the domestic market.

Improving the skills of your own employees in developing and implementing IT solutions will also help reduce dependence on external consulting and support services.

• On June 12, as part of a new package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, the US Treasury banned the provision of IT consulting and design services to anyone in Russia, as well as services IT support and cloud services for software intended for business management, as well as software for design and production. Most experts and industry participants interviewed by RB found it difficult to assess the impact of the sanctions on their companies, although they admitted that they were initially surprised.